Yesterday, at the Church of the Annunciation in Uzhhorod, a panachida was celebrated for priest-martyr, Fr. Danil Bachynsky who suffered for the faith in prison in 1951. The panachida was celebrated by both Bishop Milan Sasik, Bishop Nil Lushcak, as well as Mitered Archpriest Mikhail Banick and Fr. Olexiy Nebesnyk.

Interestingly enough his son, also named Fr. Danil Bachynsky, was the one who heard Blessed Theordore Romzha’s last confession before he was martyred, and would also be arrested and sent to the gulag during the suppression of our Church.

I’m writing this quick note from a small village called, situated not terribly far from воловець (see map). We drove out here this evening, and a beautiful drive it was. I wish I could share pictures now, but alas I didn’t bring my computer. Anyways, I digress. The drive was about two hours from Uzhhorod and after arriving here we had dinner and I was informed that we would have Vespers with Litya tomorrow evening at 8pm; 6pm local time. Excuse me? I felt like I was watching TV for a moment when they would tell you the time of the programming for central time zone. Evidently I’ve travelled far enough away from the big city to discover something called “час місцевий” or, essentially, local (or village) time. Village time, you see, is two hours different from Kyiv time and does not partake in Daylight savings. After the initial shock of the concept passed I gotta say I love the principle of it – I wish we could all dump Daylight savings as well. Something has to be said for life in these villages. It may he a hard life but these people are some of the most amazing, gracious, and hospitable people I’ve ever met. Yea, they’ve got their quirky ways, but maybe they are onto something because I think, at times, we’ve lost entirely too much touch with this old world charm. Anyways, word to the wise, if you travel into the Carpathians be sure to know what time zone you are operating in.

Yesterday in Lyakhivtsi at the Church of the Holy Trinity a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy was celebrated by Bishop Nil Lushchak, the auxiliary bishop for the Eparchy of Mukachevo, as well as the first solemn communion of three children. While the Church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity and celebrates it’s patronal feast on Holy Trinity Monday, it also celebrates a feast in honor of their altar patron on the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.

(Note: Photos were primarily taken in black and white due to the green reflection coming from the gazebo in which it the Divine Liturgy was celebrated beneath. As mentioned in an earlier post the community here is in the process of building a new Church).

Not far from Andriivka, about five minutes by car, is the small village of Irlyava. That was our destination this afternoon. We had just finished Divine Liturgy and had lunch. And, as though on cue, the storm which had been hammering the region all morning passed on so we could head to Irlyava for Liturgy. An inquiring mind might ask why mentioning the storm was relevant was relevant, that would be because where we were going there was no church.

During the suppression of the Greek Catholic Church in Transcarpathia many priests were faced with the decision to either convert to the Orthodox Church or be arrested and sent to the gulag, where quite likely they would die. At that time the priest who was assigned to Irlyava also had pastoral care of the smaller church in Andriivka because of their close proximity. However, when faced with the choice of converting or going to the gulag the priest, who’s rectory was in Irlyava, chose to convert. He would soon inherit eight other parishes from the surrounding area after their priests had been arrested.

Soon after the fall of communism the parishioners in Andriivka presented a petition to have their church returned to the Greek Catholic Church which was eventually approved, but the Greek Catholics in Irlyava were not so fortunate. Seeing the need to maintain an Orthodox parish as an outpost among many Greek Catholic parishes in the area the Orthodox refused to return the church. One of their arguments was that it was infact the Orthodox Church who had built the church to begin with, though this becomes a rather strange idea when viewing a painting on the outside of the church with the Theotokos pointing to her heart. Latinizations in our Church are generally looked at rather harshly, but in this case the latinization was proof perfect – Catholics had indeed built this church.

Generally speaking, whether there be rain or shine, this community continues to gather where its family and forbearers are laid to rest in the cemetery surrounding the church. These days, despite only having a half dozen people attending regular Liturgy, the Orthodox refuse to allow the Greek Catholics to have access to or worship in the church. Over the years this community has faced intimidation on many different levels, and even at times outright violence. A fragile agreement has been reached in which the Greek Catholics are permitted access to the land that the church is on and to celebrate Divine Liturgy outside. Rain or shine this community continues to gather where its family and forbearers are laid to rest in the cemetery surrounding the church. Even in winter they don jackets and erect a tent to serve a their makeshift church, all in the hope that some day their church will be returned to them.

Today, eighteen people gathered to celebrate Liturgy. A small wooden table was brought out. A woman from the village brought an embroidered table cloth to cover it. Then the Gospel and Antimension, all brought from Andriivka, were placed on the altar along with the gifts to be offered. Soon the priest vested, said the preparatory prayers, and took the Holy Gospel into his hands and intoned in Old Church Slavonic, “Blessed is the Kindom of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit…”

As people sang I thought of how much we can take for granted. Some of our temples in the United States aren’t the most beautiful, some are rather latinized, or even too small, but atleast we have a temple to worship in. These people here can’t even take a single step into their church today, but that doesn’t deter them from coming. The next time you start to think about how unpleasant your temple is, or what you would change, or that maybe going to Liturgy today just wouldnt be all too convenient; I challenge you to think about these people and to pray for them. But don’t just remember them, pray for the whole Church, especially here in Transcarpathia, that unity may one day be achieved and communities like this can find peace.